In my journey to improve my make up that culminated in my eye opening MAC makeup lessons, one of the things I found invaluable, is eye shadow primer. Eye shadow primer is a tricky, tricky thing. Most companies make some sort of primer and they definitely vary wildly. Without primer, my eye shadow has always had fading problems. I can cake that powder on as much as I want, but if there isn’t primer under it, the color disappears over the course of the day.

I’ve tried the primers in the image above and the results are not consistent.

INGLOT EYE SHADOW KEEPER

The Inglot eyeshadow keeper is the best. You squeeze a tiny bit out of the tube and smooth it on your lids. The creamy primer goes on smoothly and evenly, adding almost no color at all. The shadow does not move from your lids all day. I have a slightly greasy face, but my eyelids are the worst. With this stuff I don’t have any pooling of powder/pigment in the cracks of my lids.

NYX PRIMER

The NYX eye shadow primer is not quite as awesome as the Inglot but it’s a good, inexpensive substitute. It goes on with a wand but spreads evenly and doesnt dry too quickly so you can get it across your lids easily. I’ve noticed only slight fading of color and no pooling in the folds.

MAKEUP FOREVER PRIMER

The texture of the Makeup Forever was unpleasant. The primer applies with a wand and has a slightly gritty feel. It dries a little too quickly to get an even coat and I usually had to apply a little more cream than I thought I should. This cream didn’t add any color but was very, very matte. The Makeup Forever primer is on par, price wise with the Inglot and works almost as well but I couldn’t wait to be done with the tube.

Do you have a favorite eye shadow primer I should try?